sagan wrote:I receive my primary care from the VA and they do a very good job. I was saddened to hear the crap spewing from Hannity the other day about how the VA has its own "death panels". Yes they do ask if you have a living will or durable power of attorney made out or if you are interested but so did my private medical care provider.

That is surprising. Most of the patients I speak to receive care from Iron Mountain, Madison or Milwaukee. I haven't heard much good about any of the three. The patients are typically being treated for psych, prosthetics or post surgical care. Hopefully the they are exception and not the rule.

"There are two parties in politics: Republicans and Democrats. Republicans have bad ideas, Democrats have no ideas." - Lewis Black

Like others here I also get some care from the VA and also think they do a good job. The Clinic in Wausau is now run by the VA instead of a contractor so it already looks like the atrition rate will be better among the employees. It is nice to see at least someone that was there the last time. Have been seeing the same people at the eye clinic in Tomah for the last 6 or 7 years.

The VA can also negotiate on drug prices. The Bush prescription drug bill written by the pharmaceutical companies forbids this. This needs to be changed.

Often hospitals a few blocks apart will both buy ultra expensive scanning or radiology machines when one would more than serve the community and then some. All that sort of unneeded, expensive redundancy needs to be paid for. More and more jobs and the economy depend on doing something about health care access and costs as employers can no longer bear the costs. The exact same model car coming off an assembly line in Canada costs about $1500 less just because they have a more efficient health care system. We can't afford to keep falling behind the rest of the world.